BIBLICAL RESEARCHBIBLICAL ARCHAEOLOGY

Adam and offspring as Farmers, a Key to Understanding Genesis !

Biblical Adam and Eve were put "into the Garden of Eden
to dress it and to keep it" as farmers and they and their descendents were farmers
after they were removed from the Garden, they were not hunter/gatherers, as indicated by
Biblical Research and Biblical Archaeology.

"2:8 And the Lord God planted a garden
eastward in Eden; and there he put the man ...
2:9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree
that is pleasant to the sight,and good for food; ...
3:17 ... cursed is the ground for thy sake;
in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; ...
3:18 ... and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;
3:19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, ...
3:23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden,
to till the ground ...
4:2 And Abel was a keeper of sheep,
but Cain was a tiller of the ground."

"The great majority of the cultivated plants of the world trace their origin
to Asia. Out of 640 important cultivated plants, about 500 originated in
Southern Asia. In Asia alone we have established five of the principle regions
of cultivated plants.... The fifth region of origin in Asia is the
Southwestern Asiatic centre and includes Asia Minor, Trans-Caucasia, Iran and
Western Turkmenistan. This region is remarkable, first of all, for its
richness in numbers of species of wheat resistant to different
diseases...There is no doubt that Armenia is the chief home of cultivated
wheat. Asia Minor and Trans-Caucasia gave origin to rye which is represented
here by a great number of varieties and species....

Our studies show definitely that Asia is not only the home of the majority
of modern cultivated plants, but also of our chief domesticated animals such
as the cow, the yak, the buffalo, sheep, goat, horse, and pig...The
chief home of the cow and other cattle, the Oriental type of horse, the goat
and the sheep is specifically Iran....

As the result of a brilliant work of Dr. Sinskaya, the discovery was
recently made that the home of alfalfa, the world's most important forage
crop, is located in Trans-Caucasia and Iran....

From all these definitely established facts the importance of Asia as the
primary home of the greatest majority of cultivated plants and domesticated
animals is quite clear."

5:29 And he called his name Noah, saying,
This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands,
because of the ground which the Lord hath cursed.
8:21 ... I will not again curse the ground for man's sake: ...
... neither will I again smite any more every thing living, ...
8:22 ... While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, ... shall not cease.
9:20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:
11:2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east,
that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.

More recent studies conducted by Melinda A Zeder and Brian Hesse (Science
287 (2000) 2254-57) place the initial domestication of goats to the Zargos
Mountains at about 10,000 years ago. And Manfred Heun's (Science 278 (1997) 1312-14)
studies indicate that large scale wheat cultivation began from 8,000 to 9,000 years
ago near the Karacadag Mountains. Both areas are very near where the Tigris and
Euphrates Rivers come close together.

"The cradle of agriculture generally has been placed in the Jordan Valley of the
southern Levant (today's Israel and Jordan). But work by Simcha Lev-Yadun of
Israel's Agricultural Research Organization and colleagues suggest the first
farms may have been farther north, between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in
what is today northeastern Turkey and northern Syria.

Wild progenitors of the main Neolithic founder crops (einkorn wheat, emmer wheat,
barley, lentil, pea, chickpea, bitter vetch, and flax) are found together only
in this small core area of the Fertile Crescent.

Lev-Yadun reports that wild chickpea especially is extremely rare, yet it was a
staple crop of Neolithic life 10,000 years ago. Agriculture, therefore, probably
began in an area where chickpea is native. Archaeological evidence shows that the
earliest known farming settlements of the Fertile Crescent were in this core area.
Also, the limited genetic variability of these crops implies that they were
domesticated only once — rather than by several different cultures at roughly
the same time. Evidence of domesticated crops in the core area dates to about
10,000 years ago, while the earliest signs of farming elsewhere are about 9,300
years ago.

Neolithic sites discovered in the core area indicate that a society with plenty
of food thrived there. In sites such as Cayonu, Novali Cori, and Gobekli Tepe,
impressive architecture, images, and artifacts have been found. Settlement sites
are also larger in this area than many others of the same time in other parts
of the Fertile Crescent. ..." (From "The Cradle of Agriculture? New Evidence
Moves the World's First Farmers into Turkey" by Reagan Duplisea,
http://www.discoveringarchaeology.com/ articles/ 060100-turkeyfarm.shtml)

"A family tree of Indo-European languages suggests they began to
spread and split about 9,000 years ago. The finding hints that
farmers in what is now Turkey drove the language boom - and not
later Siberian horsemen, as some linguists reckon. ... Around this time,
farming techniques began to spread out of
Anatolia - now Turkey - across Europe and Asia, archaeological evidence shows."
(From "Language tree rooted in Turkey" by John Whitfield, http://www.nature.com/
nsu/nsu_pf/ 031124/ 031124-6.html) (more)

"It is known that agriculture spread from the Middle East to Europe during the
Neolithic period about 12,000 years ago, but for many years archeologists have
debated how this occurred. Was it due to the movement of people or to the movement
of ideas? Previous genetic analysis of people living today suggests a
migration - that the people moved - but critics have questioned this view.
The latest study reinforces evidence of a migration in which people brought
their ideas and lifestyle with them."(from http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases /2002/09/ 020911072622.htm)

CONCLUSION:

2:5 "and there was not a man to till the ground." (KJV)
and a paraphrase"and there were no farmers."

Biblical Adam and Eve were put "into the Garden of Eden
to dress it and to keep it" as farmers and they and their descendents were farmers
after they were removed from the Garden, they were not hunter/gatherers!

P.S. Where would one look to find the closest relatives to the people of Israel
in full accord with the Genesis record ?
"In the article in the November 2001 issue of The American Journal of Human Genetics,
Ariella Oppenheim of the Hebrew University of Israel wrote that this new study
revealed that Jews have a closer genetic relationship to populations in the
northern Mediterranean (Kurds, Anatolian Turks, and Armenians) than to populations
in the southern Mediterranean (Arabs and Bedouins)." (from http://www.barzan.com/ kevin_brook.htm)

Appendix A

And the tradition continues!

"Since Israel attained its independence (May 14, 1948), the total area under cultivation
has increased from 408,000 acres (165,000 ha.) to some 1.07 million acres
(435,000 ha.), and the number of agricultural communities has grown from
400 to 725. During the same period, agricultural production has expanded
16-fold, more than three times the population growth."

"Israel's Agricultural Exports: Total: $590 million"

"Agricultural projects and research collaboration constitute about half of all
Israel's international co-operation programs. Emphasis is placed on training
courses in agricultural subjects, with some 1,400 participants from over 80
countries attending specialised farming courses in Israel every year. In 1994
alone over 3,000 trainees received on-the-spot training in their own countries.
Since 1958, thousands of Israeli agricultural experts have been sent abroad on
long- and short-term assignments." (from http://www.israel-embassy.org.uk/ web/pages/
agrisrel.htm, "Agriculture in Israel")

As the prophet Amos wrote about 750 B.C.

"And I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel,
and they shall build the waste cities, and inhabit them:
and they shall plant vineyards, and drink the wine thereof;
They shall also make gardens, and eat the fruit of them.
And I will plant them upon their land, ..."
Amos 9:14-15 (KJV)

Biblical Adam and Eve in and after the Garden of Eden were farmers, not
hunter/gatherers as indicated by Biblical Research and Biblical Archaeology.